Dolphins work as team to end myth of human uniqueness

“If we think about synchrony, the precise occurrence of events in time, in animals it is always competitive as a means of attracting females,” said Dr Stephanie King, co-author of the new research at Bristol University. They live and hunt in large groups called pods, comprising dozens or hundreds of creatures. Apart from being friendly, dolphins are also considered as caring creatures as they are often seen helping the sick and injured members of their pod. Interestingly, only one part of the dolphins’ brains shuts out at any given time ensuring they can swim, breathe and be watchful of predators while they get their rest. Scientists believe that if the ratio size of the brain is compared to the body, dolphins are the second most intelligent creature on the earth after humans. Dolphins’ outer layer of skin (epidermis) is continuously regenerated, sometimes as early as in two hours, making it look smooth and sleek. Due to their delicate skin, dolphins get injured very often but thanks to the ongoing sloughing, the wounds get healed quickly. Writing in the the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, King and an international team of colleagues report how they gathered data from bottle-nosed dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, between June and November from 2016 to 2018. Researchers have previously found members of these small alliances move in sync – including leaping, turning and surfacing at the same time. The team adds that as the dolphin pairs were from different social groups, the findings are not a quirk of one particular collection of males: indeed further analysis on the wider data set showed such behaviour was widespread. That, she said, means that humans are not the only animals for which moving and vocalising in sync is linked to cooperative behaviour. Dr James Herbert-Read, a biologist at Cambridge University, who was not involved in the study, described the research as fascinating. “Why these dolphins synchronise their calls remains unclear, but the authors aim to address this in future studies,” he said.